www.incontinentsupport.org

As you all know I am attempting to establish a non profit removiing barriers whether they be financial or otherwise to accessing quality incontience supplies. From the beginning i though t would be prudent to vet individuals by asking for a doctors documentiation of need. This is to avoid being taken advantage of by abdls and to ensure that incontinent folks are recieving proper urological care and are pursuing treatment for their incontinece. But someone told me I very well may be not allowed to ask for consent to talk to a doctor about incontiennce due to HIPPA. So, how then do I avoid being taken advantage by abdls??

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"We cannot do great things. We can only do small things with great love" Mother Teresa

"THERE ARE FOUR LIGHTS!" - Captain Picard from Chain of Command, Part II

ABDLs are here to stay; I do not expect to live long enough for this issue to diminish. You might consider mailing handouts to urologists, whose patients might decide themselves whether to join, on their own behalf or as caregivers for other family members. As for managing ABDL influence, carefully written by-laws and articles of incorporation, enforced by vigilance, seems to me to be the way to go.

You can require a letter from a doctor that this person is really incontinent, as prerequisit for getting help.
This won't work one hundred percent, since some doctors will write what ever their patients ask, but it will help a lot.
You also have to weed out forgeries. At minumim check that the doctor actualy exsists and is a certified doctor.
Better would be to try sending the doctor a copy of the letter and asking for confirmation. Doctors are not allowed to disclose info of their patients, but if the patient gave you you a letter I can't imagine why a doctor shouldn't be allowed to let you know if it is genuine.

you really need to think through this for the simple reason there are literally thousands who suffer with incontinence but for whatever personal reasons they won't go through their own doctors. by trying to vet people just to get products people will simply turn to other sources like shops or internet.

by trying to vet people so that they can get something basic will exclude many and could cause alienation

the above situation of people not seeking advice with incontinence is well proven within many countries.

It's not a HIPAA violation for you to ask, but if father that information you have to abide by HIPAA regulations with how you handle it. Electronic, encrypted, medical records; HIPAA training for any staff; etc.

And as others have said, a lot of people, especially those in a need situation, aren't going to have a diagnosis. Proving incontinence is invasive and expensive.

Can something like this be done through a lawyer?

I really don’t know how this works in the USA, but let me do some assumption that my work also for Europe:

I think also in the USA at last some kind of a basic supply is available, and there is a possibility to get incontinence supply’s on prescription. I think the most annoying point is, that often this supply is not sufficient and people feeling helpless cheated by the system. So it might be an idea to think over if this might be a starting point. I think the key for the supply should not be a doctors confirmation but the prescription that you can “upgrade” somehow, or the help that you can people give to overcome there fear and visit the doctor. It might also a great service to help people to handle problems with the insurance if they don’t get the supply they need.

Beside of the effect that you most likely support the right people (a insurance would’t pay for ABDL’s) this gives you also good opportunities to get manufacturers involved because they can add to the normal prescription some charity extras that they can promote.

Essentially no. Not for diapers.

Medicare (government low income program) and private insurance with generally pay for catheters, but there is no coverage for for absorbent products at all. This is the case for 95% of Americans.

Medicaid (government permanently disabled, or extremely low income) and TriCare (active military and immediate family, plus disabled veterans if I'm remembering correctly) can qualify for diapers order through specific vendors, with a quota.

That's it. The bar majority have no options

Just to clarify, Medicare is not low-income, rather, it is age restricted. That said, some folks can get both MediCare and MedicAid (known as dual-eligibles) depending on their state's rules governing MedicAid. The PPACA (aka ObamaCare) extended additional funds to state governments (covering 90% of the expansion), but a lot of states decided they didn't want the money....for reasons. That's a whole extra post.

It is true that incontinence supplies don't *seem* to be covered in the Essential Health Benefits of health plans, but they actually are. The catch is that they are not required to supply them free. There seems to be an agreement that if something is prescribed, then it is likely to be discounted, but things like diapers (because they are not Durable Medical Equipment) are generally not.

Still, there are ways to get some money back. Flexible Spending Accounts and the like allow you to get reimbursed from a pretax account. This can save you a significant amount of money, and since we all know how much we're likely to spend on diapers per year, you're in a good position to make an accurate guess.

Actually medicare is NOT age restricted. I've had it since I was 27